第十一篇

第二個行星上住著一個愛虛榮的人。

「喔唷!一個崇拜我的人來拜訪了!」這個愛虛榮的人一見到小王子,老遠就叫喊起來。

在那些愛虛榮的人眼裡,別人都成了他們的崇拜者。

「你好!」小王子說道。「你的帽子很奇怪。」

「這是為了向人致意用的。」愛虛榮的人回答道,「當人們向我歡呼的時候,我就用帽子向他們致意。可惜,沒有一個人經過這裡。」

小王子不解其意。說道:「啊?是嗎?」

愛虛榮的人向小王子建議道:「你用一隻手去拍另一隻手。」

小王子就拍起巴掌來。這位愛虛榮者就謙遜地舉起帽子向小王子致意。

小王子心想:「這比訪問那位國王有趣。」於是他又拍起巴掌來。愛虛榮者又舉起帽子來向他致意。

小王子這樣做了五分鐘,之後對這種單調的把戲有點厭倦了,說道:

「要想叫你的帽子掉下來,該怎麼做呢?」

可這回愛虛榮者聽不進他的話,因為凡是愛虛榮的人只聽得進讚美的話。

他問小王子道:「你真的欽佩我嗎?」

「欽佩是什麼意思?」

「欽佩么,就是承認我是星球上最美的人,服飾最好的人,最富有的人,最聰明的人。」

「可您是您的星球上唯一的人呀!」

「讓我高興吧,請你還是來欽佩我吧!」

小王子輕輕地聳了聳肩膀,說道:「我欽佩你,可是,這有什麼能使你這樣感興趣的?」

於是小王子就走開了。

小王子在路上自言自語地說了一句:「這些大人,肯定是十分古怪。」

[ Chapter 11 ] - the little prince visits the ceited man

The sed pla was inhabited by a ceited man.

"Ah! Ah! I am about to receive a visit from an admirer!" he exclaimed from afar, when he first saw the little prining.

For, to ceited men, all other men are admirers.

"Good m," said the little prihat is a queer hat you are wearing."

"It is a hat for salutes," the ceited man replied. "It is to raise in salute when people acclaim me. Unfortunately, nobody at all ever passes this way."

"Yes?" said the little prince, who did not uand what the ceited man was talking about.

"Clap your hands, one against the other," the ceited man now directed him.

The little prince clapped his hands. The ceited man raised his hat in a modest salute.

"This is more eaining than the visit to the king," the little prince said to himself. And he began again to clap his hands, one against the other. The ceited man against raised his hat in salute.

After five minutes of this exercise the little prince grew tired of the games monotony.

"And what should one do to make the hat e down?" he asked.

But the ceited man did not hear him. ceited people never hear anything but praise.

"Do you really admire me very much?" he demanded of the little prince.

"What does that mean-- admire?"

"To admire mean that yard me as the handsomest, the best-dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on this pla."

"But you are the only man on your pla!"

"Do me this kindness. Admire me just the same."

"I admire you," said the little prince, shrugging his shoulders slightly, "but what is there in that to i you so much?"

And the little prince went away.

"The grown-ups are certainly very odd," he said to himself, as he tinued on his journey.

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